Awesome world Harry Potter.
But if Christianity is real then so is Harry Potter and any kind of magic in this world. Toon Town exists, and so does Cool World.
I know fantasy from reality. It is possible we die to nothing. Once and done. Like Morgan Freeman says, you cease to exist.
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@Feivel
"Awesome world Harry Potter."
Yair ,would love to live there, as long as I was a wizard as powerful as Harry and not a muggle. (I'd want two things Harry lacks; a personality and to be married to Hermione)
I've actually run across a couple of born againies who will not let their children read Harry Potter books because they honestly believe the books are demonic.
There is also a quite disturbed catholic priest in Tennessee who believes the spells in Harry Potter are real and are evil.--so he banned them from his school.
"A Catholic school in Nashville, Tennessee, apparently doesn’t want any transfer students from Hogwarts.
St. Edward School is no longer allowing its pre-K through eighth grade students to check out Harry Potter books from the school’s library.
The reason? Well, the Rev. Dan Reehil, one of the school’s pastors, says the spells and curses presented in the fictional children’s series are legit and could present problems for kids who read the books, according to the Tennessean."
https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/catholic-school-harry-potter-boo...
Seems not all religious loonies in the US Bible belt are evangelical literalists. Is it perhaps something in the water?
@ Cranky
Bearing in mind that it is all fantasy, and that imagination is everything I too would want to be a kick arse wizard but I'd prefer to be married to Bellatrix Lestrange, after I had magically removed the dark side from her of course, not completely mind you, because I do so like naughty girls. Hermoine is too nerdy for my tastes.
When I was 10 years old in primary school our teacher sternly and passionately warned that if we listened to Beatles music much less sang along with it, we would wind up in in the fiery pits of hell and no mistake. This was 1963 and most parents would have agreed with him even though it was a state school.
Imagine, my sister had bought every Beatle single ever released and played them 24/7 in her room. My deaf mute parents were blissfully unaware the dreadful fate she had guaranteed for my immortal soul. Quite apart from being my sister, she was the one naughty girl I never liked.
@cranky47
Walking out of a cloud of smoke, cough cough cough.
That's just crazy, Harry Potter was based somewhat loosely on White and Dark magic, but it's still not real. That's just laughable that a pastor went that far.
I know of Voodoo and use to read curses for something to do.
@Fievel
"I know of Voodoo and use to read curses for something to do.'***
Me too, although I never cursed anyone. .
I DID have a teacher of things occult at one stage. One of the areas he showed me was what he called 'real magic'.Rather than the fluffery of Wicca which was invented in the1950's by a retired British civil servant, Gerald Gardener. ---
He meant well, even teaching me what he saw as the difference between black and white magic; IE that black magic is whenever a person is being forced to act against their will, no matter the intent. He was all about healing and 'spiritual wellbeing '
He also believed that Aleister Crowley was a real but very ignorant black magician who caused a lot of harm, including ritual murder. .
In the final analysis, did any of it work?
NO.
-None of that shit survives examination using scientific method . That's why I had abandoned it by 1976, along with astrology and various other kinds of woo and woo meisters . Eg the pious fraud Paramahansa Yogananda and Helena Blavatsky, who was just a fraud and barefaced liar.
*** TRIVIA: I learned recently that Papa Doc Duvalier identified with Baron Samedi and that is why he always dressed in black. .Now THERE was a truly evil bastard,.
Every seen The Serpent and the Rainbow? It is a fictional story that kind of takes place in the setting you mentioned.
@Nyarlathotep
"Every seen The Serpent and the Rainbow? It is a fictional story that kind of takes place in the setting you mentioned."
No, I haven't. Will have a look around .. Sounds like something Dennis Wheatley would have written in the 1950's
. I had heard about 'real' zombies. The case mentioned sounds familiar, or at least the use of poison and herbs. I seem to remember a toxin from a frog (?) or perhaps a puffer fish (?) .
((((((((((((((((((9)))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Had a look around.
Is this it:?
"The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1988 American horror film directed by Wes Craven and starring Bill Pullman. The script by Richard Maxwell and Adam Rodman is loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by ethnobotanist Wade Davis, wherein Davis recounted his experiences in Haiti investigating the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was allegedly poisoned, buried alive, and revived with an herbal brew which produced what was called a zombie."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_and_the_Rainbow_(film)
I think I can acquire a copy.
Yeah, that is it.
@cranky47
you went to being an atheist in 1976?
Well if that is true, you took that path before I did.
I was 6 in 1976, but was still a god and Jesus worshiper.
It took a lot of my life to realize that there's more to life than some deity which can never be proved. I wish in a way it could, but I have no problem with dying and never gaining consciousness back ever. Ceasing to exist is better than a heaven which you must live there forever. Dying sounds much better as I can not imagine what I would even do for an eternity.
I am nice to all for no other reason then because we're all human. I do not practice Voodoo, and don't believe in the devil. It was all human created.
My two cents.
Fievel Mousekewitz it is a brutal and cruel world we live in. A best I know, everything dies, be it people, stars, planets, even this known universe.
Accepting that once your body ceases to function and that it is the end is a hard thing to grasp and accept. But I got over it, and I sincerely believe that once the curtain drops, the show is over for me, I will be nothing more than plant food. Initially that was a hard pill to swallow, but that understanding actually brought peace of mind to me. If I am truly gone when I die, I enjoy each moment while I am alive. I notice and enjoy the small things in life, I watch birds and clouds and children and smile. The simple things in life bring great joy to me.
The understanding that I have just one ride on this crazy merry-go-round has made my life fuller and richer.
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Here is a thought.
What if your"soul" or "spirit" or whatever spends an eternity, would not that be completely fucking boring? Spend an eternity praising and kissing the ass of some insecure deity? Fuck that, I have issues with authority anyways, heaven is not a nice place to me. With an eternity, you would have had full talks with everyone, you would have gone to the end of the internet, heard every joke, you would have learned everything possible. But once you have done everything possible and experienced everything possible, boredom would set it. For eternity.
Give me wild parties, hot sex, AC/DC, booze and drugs. Give me a joke I have never heard before, an unpredictably wild and crazy finish to the Superbowl, my dog making me laugh, and even new cat memes.
What kind of music would they play in heaven? Gregorian chants, Gaither Gospel Hour singers, or Perry Como? Fuck that.
@David Killens
"Fievel Mousekewitz it is a brutal and cruel world we live in. A best I know, everything dies, be it people, stars, planets, even this known universe.
Accepting that once your body ceases to function and that it is the end is a hard thing to grasp and accept. But I got over it, and I sincerely believe that once the curtain drops, the show is over for me, I will be nothing more than plant food. Initially that was a hard pill to swallow, but that understanding actually brought peace of mind to me. If I am truly gone when I die, I enjoy each moment while I am alive. I notice and enjoy the small things in life, I watch birds and clouds and children and smile. The simple things in life bring great joy to me.
The understanding that I have just one ride on this crazy merry-go-round has made my life fuller and richer."
Hell yeah I do whatever I can do to fill my life with as much good things as possible. What I do the most is write nasty stories with my user name having sex.
So I couldn't agree more.
"Here is a thought.
What if your"soul" or "spirit" or whatever spends an eternity, would not that be completely fucking boring? Spend an eternity praising and kissing the ass of some insecure deity? Fuck that, I have issues with authority anyways, heaven is not a nice place to me. With an eternity, you would have had full talks with everyone, you would have gone to the end of the internet, heard every joke, you would have learned everything possible. But once you have done everything possible and experienced everything possible, boredom would set it. For eternity."
I don't know what's after death, possibly nothing. But if there is an afterlife, (Highly Doubtful) I believe you get your own planet to do what you want to do with it. Speaking more hypothetically of course. One probably just ceases to exist, which I can live with.
"Give me wild parties, hot sex, AC/DC, booze and drugs. Give me a joke I have never heard before, an unpredictably wild and crazy finish to the Superbowl, my dog making me laugh, and even new cat memes.
What kind of music would they play in heaven? Gregorian chants, Gaither Gospel Hour singers, or Perry Como? Fuck that."
I don't drink a lot, but it is usually beer when I do. I like something called Natural Ice it's beer.
I prefer Pot, it doesn't make me sick and I don't get hangovers from it.
Is "Harry Potter" the greatest risk to children in Catholic schools? I think those kids should all be given magic wands with built-in tasers.
And running shoes
I read a Harry Potter book and even had a magic wand once. Look how I turned out!!
@Cog Re: "I read a Harry Potter book and even had a magic wand once. Look how I turned out!!"
...*weary sigh*... You're not helping.
Tin: Sorry, I just miss that magic wand. Do you know what its like to simply wave a stick in the air and have the bananas move from way up there to way down here without having to climb a tree? It was the best week of my life! Then I had to go and get creative and make a 500 pound banana. Nearly broke my back, crushed my magic wand, and taught me not to be so damn greedy. Next time I will just make 50 pound bananas.